1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a joint structure for jointing between a pressure clamper and a casting nozzle to the lower portion of a casting nozzle which is attached to a ladle or tundish of a continuous steel casting apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The continuous steel casting apparatus is equipped with a portion, at which two nozzles, such as a ladle lower nozzle and a ladle shroud, or a tundish lower nozzle and a submerged entry shroud, have to be jointed to each other.
This joint will be described in the prior art by using the joint between a submerged entry shroud and a slide gate as an example.
As shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, presenting a top plan section taken along line XIII--XIII of FIG. 12, there is currently adopted a structure in which a submerged entry shroud "a" mounted by a hanger-like pressure clamper "f" on a holder "e" through mortar "d" is pressed onto a bottom of a casting nozzle "c" fixed on the bottom of a slide gate "b".
However, this joint structure of the prior art is defective in that it is deformed in the holder by heat, which is transferred from the molten steel flowing through the nozzles, and so requires periodic replacements. Another defect is that the mortar used for fixing the nozzles deteriorates the working efficiency so that it takes a long time to set and joint the nozzles. Still another defect is that the submerged entry shroud requires its discharge port to be oriented in a predetermined direction, thus making it difficult to position the nozzles relative to each other.